ReConnecting Content Databases in SharePoint 2007

After the failover of a SharePoint Products and technologies database, it is required to reconnect the content
databases. The following are the databases that are required to be reconnected,

• Content database
• Admin database
• Configuration Database
• Search Database
• Shared Services Provider

The following stsadm commands are used to reconnect to the content database after a failover, the deletecontentdb will remove the reference to the old database server and the addcontentdb will add the new database as the content database

stsadm –o deletecontentdb –url [Site] -databasename -databaseserver [Old Principal]

stsadm –o addcontentdb –url [Site] -databasename -databaseserver [Old Principal]

Reconnecting content databases can also done using Central Administration,

1. Navigate to Central Administration.
2. Navigate to Application management page
3. click on the Content Databases.
4. Select the content database that has failed-over.
5. In the Manage Content Databases page, choose the Remove content database option, and then click OK.
6. Select the Add a content database option, and enter the required details.
7. Replace the Database Server box with the new principal server, and then click OK.

Default Groups and permission levels in MOSS 2007

The out of the box SharePoint Groups created and the permission levels for each of the group is explained in the following segment


The Limited Access permission level will provide access to specific list, document library or an item or a document in a list or document library without providing access to the entire site.

The following are the special users that are available in SharePoint for high level administration tasks:

Site Collection Administrators:
One or more users can be designated as primary or secondary site collection administrators. These users have full control on the sites within the site collection and can audit site content. Site Administrators are assigned at the time of creating the site but can also be changed by using the Central Administration or Site Settings pages.

Farm Administrators:
Farm administrators are users who manage the server and the server farm settings. The Farm administrators can be added using the Central Administration tool only. Farm administrators have no access to the site’s content by default. They must be added as site collection administrators in order to view any content.

Administrators:
Administrators of the local server can perform all tasks similar to the Farm server administrator like installing new products or applications, deploying web parts and new features to the global assembly cache, creating new web applications and new IIS web sites, starting services etc. Like Farm administrators, administrators do not have access to view site content and need to be explicitly added as site collection administrators to view any content.